Faculty of Military Leadership, University of Defense, Kounicova 65, 662 10 Brno, Czech Republic.
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Celetná 20, 110 00 Prague, Czech Republic.
Mil Med. 2024 Feb 27;189(3-4):683-691. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usac253.
A deeper understanding of personality specifics in military personnel may increase the efficacy of health care professionals in this field. Changes in modern warfare require army officers to make decisions in complicated situations with increasing levels of autonomy. Character is traditionally regarded as a key quality in these dynamics. However, it remains unclear which character strengths are conducive to effective leadership in the military. The present study aims at mapping Czech Army cadets' and professional soldiers' perceptions of the character strengths of those officers, who they consider the best they served under. The study also examined how these perceptions vary across soldiers at different stages of their careers and how much they overlap with the same soldiers' ratings of their own strengths. In addition, a regression analysis, to outline combinations of strengths for various aspects of character-based leadership, was performed.
Respondents (N = 199) were recruited from three different subpopulations of the Czech Army-serving members of two reconnaissance units (N = 38), and 1st (N = 81) and 5th (N = 80) year cadets at the University of Defense. They rated the character strengths of chosen officers and themselves on the Character Strengths Leadership Inventory and the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths Revised. This study was approved by the units' commanding officer and the representatives of the University of Defense.
Subordinates rated honesty, leadership, perspective, teamwork, fairness, creativity, love of learning, and zest highest in their chosen officers. These officers' mean profiles strongly correlated in all the three groups (rs = .82-.86). The mean correlation between officers' and respondents' self-reported strengths was not strong (rs = .18). Multiple regression models of the perception of an officer's success, success of their team, them as a leadership example, and them as having a good character, most frequently, involved fairness, honesty, kindness, and social intelligence, while forgiveness was negatively associated with these parameters.
The present study achieved its aims. First, it suggests the officers' character strengths that tend to be most valued by their subordinates among Czech Army cadets and soldiers serving in reconnaissance units. Second, the strong overlap of best officers' character profiles in all groups suggests that this perception may remain stable throughout a soldier's career. Third, the relationship between chosen officers' and respondents' self-reported strengths was negligible, suggesting that the perception of officer's strengths may not be an individual's projection. Fourth, regression models of character-based leadership proposed a combination of character strengths that may contribute to the officer's perceived efficacy. Compared to other studies, the sample included both cadets and military professionals with a proportional number of females being included. These results imply that health care practitioners working with military clients may benefit from the acknowledgment of their specific character strengths, most notably honesty and fairness, while providing care to this population.
更深入地了解军人的个性特点，可以提高医疗保健专业人员在这一领域的工作效果。现代战争的变化要求军官在越来越自主的情况下，在复杂的情况下做出决策。传统上，性格被认为是这些动态的关键素质。然而，目前尚不清楚哪些性格优势有利于军队中的有效领导。本研究旨在描绘捷克陆军学员和职业军人对他们认为表现最佳的军官的性格优势的看法。该研究还考察了这些看法如何在不同职业阶段的士兵之间发生变化，以及它们与同一士兵对自己优势的评价有多少重叠。此外，还进行了回归分析，以概述各种基于性格的领导的优势组合。
从捷克陆军的三个不同子群体中招募了被试（N=199）：两个侦察部队的现役军人（N=38），以及国防大学的 1 年级（N=81）和 5 年级（N=80）学员。他们使用性格优势领导力量表和价值观行动优势量表修订版对选定军官和自己的性格优势进行了评分。这项研究得到了部队指挥官和国防大学代表的批准。
下属对诚实、领导力、洞察力、团队合作、公平、创造力、热爱学习和热情在他们选择的军官身上评价最高。这些军官的平均概况在所有三个群体中都有很强的相关性（rs=。82-.86）。军官和被试自我报告的优势之间的平均相关性不强（rs=。18）。对军官成功、团队成功、作为领导榜样和具有良好性格的感知的多元回归模型最常涉及公平、诚实、善良和社交智慧，而宽恕则与这些参数呈负相关。
本研究达到了预期目的。首先，它表明了在捷克陆军学员和侦察部队服役的士兵中，下属倾向于认为军官具有的性格优势。其次，所有群体中最佳军官性格概况的强烈重叠表明，这种看法可能在士兵的整个职业生涯中保持稳定。第三，选定军官和被试自我报告的优势之间的关系可以忽略不计，这表明对军官优势的看法可能不是个人的投射。第四，基于性格的领导力的回归模型提出了一个可能有助于军官感知效能的性格优势组合。与其他研究相比，该样本包括了学员和军事专业人员，并且有比例相当的女性被包括在内。这些结果表明，为这一人群提供护理的医疗保健从业者可能会受益于承认他们特定的性格优势，尤其是诚实和公平。
